Process of drying air for blast-furnaces.



N. T. BACON. PROCESS OF DRYING AIR FOR BLAST FURNACES.

APPLICATION FILED MAR.13, 1906.

In ven tor PATENTED MAR. 12, 1907.

Hurrah s refrns PATENT @FFIQE.

PROCESS o F DRYING AIR FOR BLAST-FURNACES.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented March 12, 1907.

Original application filed January 2 5,1 905, Serial No. 242,69 '7. Divided and this application filed March 13, 1 9 06. Serial No. 305,777.

To a, whom it mm, concern:

Be it known that I, NATHANIEL TERRY BACON, residence and post-office address i Peace Dale, Rhode Island, have invented certain new and useful Improvements ini Processes for Drying Air or other Gases for l Blast-Furnaces and other Uses, of which the l following is a specification.

A process has recently been discoveredand gone into use by which the air or gas for blast-furnaces, whether preheated or not,% has been dried, thereby'e'fl'ecting a marked 5 increase of heat economy in the combustion 1 process or other process for which said gas j overflow-tank Q, where the mercury may be or air is used.

The present process consists in an im-; proved way of drying the air or other gas! simply and advantageously. This object Laccomplish, preferably, by washing the air I or other gas with or exposing it to a sub- 1 stance, preferably liquid, at abnormally low temperature as compared with the source of air or gas supply. This may be best exemplified by the use of mercury, one of the characteristics of which is that water I will not mix with it. The air or gas to be i dried may be bubbled throughmercury at a 1 temperature low enough to freeze the mois- I ture and the frozen moisture floating on the surface of the mercury may be carried off either with the mercury or by scraping it from the surface. In eithen event it is the liquid state of the mercury that makes the i ready removal of the abstracted moisture possible. If mercury be used and the moisture frozen, the latent heat of liquefaction which has passed into the mercury may be to a large extent abstracted therefrom by;

l l i causing the ice to melt chemically, as by the use of salt, and thereby again reducing the temperature of the mercury. For some purposes 1t will also be advantageous to initially 1 chill the entering fresh air by means of the chilled and dried air leaving the cooling apparatus proper;

In the drawing suitable apparatus is shown diagrammatically, carrying out the invention. i

A represents a mercury-tower, which is in 3 this instance divided into two compartments F B and 0, each of which is partially filled with mercury M. Each compartment is provided with gas-inlet pipes D and E, which are suit- 1 ably shaped at the top and provided with g holes G and H. Hoods or caps K and L are i preferably placed over the tops of the gas-inl letsl D and E for the purpose of compelling the gas to bubble through the mercury M. The gas under pressure enters the pipe E and after passing through the holes G and under neath the edge of the hood L passes through the mercury M into the chamber 0. From the chamber 0 the gas passes in'the same manner through the pipe D and through the mercury into the compartment B and from there out through the pipe J. A suitable system of circulation is provided, which consists of the pipe N, which has the two inlets O and P, one in each compartment, to permit the ice-water and mercury to run into the chilled by any suitable means, such as p assing a liquidchilled by any suitable ice machine (not shown) through the coil of pipe W. A suitable outlet X is provided at the top of the tank Q to permit the ice or water to flow off from the surface of the mercury in the tank. From the tank Q the mercury can be pumped back into the system by means of the pump R. The pump R is connected to the two compartments at S and T by means of the pipe U. In order to pump mercury to either chamber, a valve Y is provided in the pipe S, so that the same may be closed to pump mercury into the tank B.

What I claim as my invention is'- 1. In the process of drying air or other gases for blast-furnaces and other uses, the improvement which consists in extracting the moisture from air or gas by lowermg lts temperaturebelow the freezing-point by exl exposing it to a liquid chilled to a suitable temperature .with which-water does not mix,

causing the air to be chilledto mingle with liminary cooling of the air to be chilled by and extracting the moisture wholly or partly the ice and chilled liquid so as to cause a prein liquid form without interruption of, the

process.

3. In the process of drying air or other gases' for blast-furnaces and other uses, the improvement which consists .in extracting IIO the moisture from the air or gas supplied by lowering its temperature by exposing it to a relatively cold liquid, With which Water does not mix, and extracting the. condensed mois- 4. In the process of drying air or other gases for blast-furnaces and other uses, the

improvement which consists in extracting the moisture from the air or gas supplie i by c lowering its temperature by exposing it to ture during the continuation of the process. 

